Irish firm shoots for the stars after signing space deal

AN Irish company has signed a deal with a leading Russian university to track potentially dangerous space junk from its hi-tech facility in Co Cork.

The partnership between the National Space Centre (NSC) in Midleton and the prestigious Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Fitztekh) will also see two Irish third-level institutions working with Fitztekh on space and physics education projects, and on research and development.

“This is a great opportunity not just for our company, but for our educational institutions and for Ireland as a whole,” said NSC chief executive Rory Fitzpatrick.

“It represents real progress in an expanding Irish sector, and working with Fitztekh will both enhance skills and attract graduates to this high-end developing space sector.”

Earlier this week, NSC unveiled the largest radio telescope in Europe available for education purposes at its Elfordstown Earthstation facility outside Midleton. The company will use its 32-metre satellite dish to provide precise radar measurements of the smaller space junk objects.

NSC will feed this information into a network of optical telescopes around the globe and exchange data on dangerous space objects with European institutions.

Space debris has been accumulating around Earth since the earliest days of space exploration.

The items can vary in size, from large discarded rocket stages and defunct satellites to small nuts, bolts, satellite fragments, paint flakes and dust from solid rocket booster fuels.

The debris is found in two layers: in low-earth orbit, between 160 and 2,000km above the Earth’s surface, and in geostationary-earth orbit. The debris in low-earth orbit is affected by atmospheric drag and some large objects can come crashing down to Earth, while smaller objects burn up in the atmosphere.

All of the material poses a risk to orbiting satellites and to operational spacecraft.

NSC signed the deal during the eighth Russian-Irish Joint Economic Commission, held in Moscow last week. The Irish delegation was led by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore. The agreement, entitled Road Map Fitztekh — Ireland, was signed by Fitztekh president Nikolai Kudryavtsev.

The agreement will also benefit University College Cork (UCC) and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), who will, with NSC, collaborate with a number of Russian organisations led by Fiztekh.

There are plans to install satellite stations at UCC and CIT to facilitate lectures and seminars by videoconference between the campuses and Fitztekh, giving Irish students access to world leaders in the physics field, and to organise student exchanges.

Space junk

LAST month, a defunct German telescope weighing over two tonnes crashed to Earth.

The previous month, a giant NASA atmosphere research satellite the size of a bus slammed into the planet. NASA still isn’t sure where its estimated 26 fragments landed.

In 1983, a small paint flake struck the space shuttle Challenger — punching a small crater into the shuttle’s window resulting in $50,000 of damage.

NASA’s 85-tonne Skylab crashed into Western Australia in 1979.

NASA experts have calculated that the chance of space junk causing death, injury or property damage is 2,000 to one.

The US Space Surveillance Network has detected over 21,000 objects larger than 10cm in low-Earth orbit.

But it is estimated that there are over 500,000 objects less than a cm, and tens of millions of paint-chip like pieces in orbit.

To remain in orbit, many fragments must travel at 20 times the speed of sound — almost 18,000 miles per hour.

At this speed, a cherry-sized piece of space debris can strike with the force of a hand grenade.